Margaret Noodin is Assistant Professor in the Department of English and the American Indian Studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA.
Bawaajimo confirms a vision come to pass, a landmark to a vital
moment in Anishinaabe history in our collective culture and country
where language renewal is taking place on our tongues, on the page,
and in our dreams. This work makes a significant contribution to a
field with very few scholarly texts and a rising readership. An
Anishinaabe-centered critical reading from a scholar with fluency
in the Anishinaabe language is a singular contribution, absolutely
new and years ahead of any other work that will compete on any
level.
--Heid E. Erdrich, author of Cell Traffic: New and Selected Poems
and National Monuments
Bawaajimo is grounded in a deep understanding of Anishinaabemowin,
cutting-edge literary criticism, and a wide breadth of experience
on the land, in classrooms, and in lodges. These rich essays of
love and respect for our stories and storytellers not only set a
new standard for studies in Anishinaabe literature but embody a new
critical approach utilizing the ways language, creativity, and
history operate in our culture. It is an honor song for our
ancestors and our communities. Gichi-miigwech nimise.
--Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Co-Editor of Centering
Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World through Stories
Poet and linguist Margaret Noodin sees and hears things in the
Anishinaabe language that others only dream of. With Bawaajimo, she
lights a pathway into the language and invites us all to come along
and wonder at its complexity, power of expression, and wisdom. She
shows us, patiently, a word at a time, how the Anishinaabe language
is a vast reservoir of "tribal knowledge" and "indigenous systems
of thinking." These waters must be navigated with sensitivity, and
with a sense of humility at the genius that the ancestors have
passed down. Four contemporary Ojibwe writers--Erdrich, Northrup,
Johnston, and Vizenor--guide the way. But Noodin's great
contribution is in how she illuminates and contextualizes these
authors' works, spinning a tapestry that spans millennia of Ojibwe
thinking, visions, and ways of being in the landscape. It is a
truly remarkable journey.
--K. David Harrison, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Swarthmore
College, and Vice President, Living Tongues Institute for
Endangered Languages
The relationship between indigenous mother tongues and indigenous
literatures written in English is vexed and burdened by the many
destructive legacies of colonialism. Too often scholars and writers
alike assume an inevitable conflict between the two, but some of
the most significant recent work in the field challenges those
assumptions and grapples with the complex intellectual and
emotional entanglements between our languages and our literatures.
Bawaajimo is a major contribution to this conversation, and it
extends well beyond it. This book is a very welcome and
impressively profound example of scholarly generosity and ethical
provocation, one that insists on the continuing relevance of
indigenous literatures and languages not simply as a moral good but
as an intellectual one, too.
--Daniel Heath Justice, Chair of the First Nations Studies Program,
Associate Professor in the First Nations Studies Program and of
English, and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Literature and
Expressive Culture, University of British Columbia
This book gets to the heart of indigenous writing through an
impeccable examination of Anishinaabe language and literature.
Noodin's expansive knowledge and clear explanations invite readers
to a new and imaginative understanding of major Anishinaabe
authors.
--P. Jane Hafen, Professor of English, University of Nevada, Las
Vegas
We need more books like Noodin's, more readers who can make a
conversation between Native language and Native literature, and
more readers who can bring together a lived knowledge of language
and culture with a specific American Indian literary tradition.
Noodin's book is culturally and intellectually generous and a great
and illuminating pleasure to read.
--Robert Dale Parker, author of The Invention of Native American
Literature
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